Research Article Open Access

Investigation Of Photocatalytic Degradation Of Phenol Using Titanium Dioxide Particles

Abstract

The commercial TiO2 particles were used in the present work to investigate the photocatalytic degradation (photodegradation) of phenol solution with 100 ppm of concentration in an aqueous suspension of TiO2 under UVC (215 nm) light irradiation. The commercial TiO2 was analysed using X-ray diffraction (XRD), surface area analysis (BET), and dynamic light scattering (DLS), in order to obtain important parameters. The results indicated that the commercial TiO2 consisted of 96% of anatase and 4% of rutile. Further, the data also revealed that the particle size was 400 nm and the specific surface area was 9.73 m2 /g. The photodegradation was done under UV irradiation for 24 hours. The evaluation of photocatalytic efficiency was done by measuring the absorbance peak of phenol at 270 nm using UVVIS spectroscopy. The absorbance spectra of phenol’s peak indicated that after 12 hour of irradiation time the phenol’s peak decreased approximately 50%. In the meantime, the red shift of absorbance peak also appeared. This means the degradation of phenol occurred during the irradiation process. However, the absorbance peak decreased dramatically after 16 hours of irradiation. In addition, the COD data confirmed the mentioned results by showing that the COD concentration of phenol solution slightly decreased from initial condition to 12 hours of irradiation time and decreased dramatically after 16 hours of irradiation. All the results in proved that phenol can be removed using photocatalytic of TiO2 . Additionally, the intermediate phase of phenol during the degradation process might be considered in the further work.

 D.T.T. Trinh, S.T.T. Le, W. Khanitchaidecha  And A. Nakaruk 

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